The new cultivar, Aeonium ‘Black Ruby’, was found by the inventor, Renee O'Connell, as the result of a crossing made February 2013 as part of a planned breeding program. The seed parent variety is the unpatented proprietary variety referred to as Aeonium hybrida ‘CAT1’. The pollen parent is the unpatented variety Aeonium hybrida ‘13’. Aeonium ‘Black Ruby’ was selected by the inventor, Renee O Connell, in October of 2013 from a group of seedlings resulting from the February crossing, at a commercial greenhouse in Vista. Calif.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘Black Ruby’ was first performed in Vista, Calif., at a commercial greenhouse, by vegetative off-sets in Spring of 2014. ‘Black Ruby’ has since produced multiple generations and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.